got back from hunting and it was one of the funner hunts i have been on not just from what i killed but all the other bucks i saw taken there were 4 bucks that were 30" or bigger. 1 that was 28" , my 26" and 3 that were close to 24" and 1- 2point. these are just what i saw and was around my camp. thanks to the cool crisp fall weather that keep all the deer on the move. i am working on all of the other pic but for now here is the 5x3 i shot. wondering how everyone else hunt went aswell

I hunted the Parker Mountain for a few days and did get a shot opening morning at a nice 3x4 that was running with a heard of does and another that was identical to him. We even checked out the top of the Boulder Mountain and all we saw were huge elk. So on Tuesday morning we packed up and headed to the Indian Peaks area. We stopped in Milford and heard of a nice buck running around in the Wah Wah Mountains so headed over there to see if we could find him. That night I dropped a respectable 4x4 but not the monster.
From what we saw most of the bigger bucks were running just off of the top of the mountains, even after the snow on Tuesday The funny thing was that we checked for deer at 10,000' and all we saw were elk. But the on that I shot was hanging around at 9,000'. It was anyones guess on where they were running this year. It seams like if you got into them you were into them.

I have been very lucky to have found this hunting area for the last five years i have been able to kill a four point ranging between 22" to 26" I am still waiting for that 30" you always hear hunters say if you shoot a small one how are you to kill a big one well I am in that situation. to me a 24" buck is the good trophy unlike 10-15 years ago it was a 30". it is very hard to kill a 30'' any more on a general season hunt in utah but there is still that chance if you do lots of home work or get lucky.

It is often amazing at how many hunters are looking for that 30" mule deer. Even the lucky ones that draw tags for the Henry Mountains or even the fabled Paunsaugunt area believe that there is one behind every tree. What they don't realize is that most of the good bucks in those two areas are in the 24"-28" spreads. Even when I was scouting for a buffalo with my brother in law last year most of the big bucks sported antlers less than 30" but we did see a couple that went a little over and one that was pushing 40. Now that was a buck to see. But in all my years afield witch are over 45 years I can only say that I have only seen 10 or less that were really monsters. Most were during a scouting trip where you would just happen on them. One of them was a 6x5 that was close to 40"+ that was standing next to a trailer during the archery hunt in the Book Cliffs back in 2001. Now that was a buck.

Yeah, I have seen one over 40 in my whole life; and I had a tag in the pocket too! I chased him all over the hills for three day overlooking some others in the 30" range that I could have attempted! ,) ,) Went home with a small double crab claw instead

That was about 15 years ago (I think 94 or 95) and since then I had only seen one other buck I knew was over 30" until just two weeks ago when I saw [4] all together! The biggest one prolly pushing 35". ...and YES , I am trying to draw for that unit next year

I have never been on the henry's mnt i will go some day i kmow a guy who had that tag and killed a 8x8 only 28" and they hunted for 5 days so your right it is tuff to find that perfect 30" I also would say and i am sure i have made this same mistake you see a good buck and over judge a 28" or a 29" for the 30" so i can say i may have only seen a few in my lifetime but i know there out there from this years hunt

If you have a chance to go the the Henry Mountains even just to look for big bucks during the fall of the year you should. It would amaze you. I use to hunt down there during the 70's and 80's when it was 4 and 3 points or better. It was really a hard hunt but the bucks would scare you. Now days there was a fire in 2003 and cleared out a lot of the pinion and cedar along with the firs on the top of two of the peaks. The big bucks love the burn area and that is where most of them are found, along with the buffalo.

Now if I could just draw a buffalo tag along with my Book Cliff deer tag I would have it made.

Sounds like you found a nice honey hole Not too often anymore that you even see 4 points in northern utah. I think within the next couple years there will be more and more people going southern utah instead of northern. There's just plain more deer. My dad went down by the paunsagaunt unit 2 years ago and he said there were more bucks down there than total deer in northern utah that we've seen. We were out scouting, archery, muzzle, and deer and only saw about 9 bucks the whole time we went out. maybe 2 of which were shooters, in my opinion. By shooter I mean decent size 4 points. I say south is still the best in the state. i think I'll head down south somewhere next year. Maybe I'll at least see some deer

Historically, hunting has been a sport that has been predominately participated in by men. There have been notable exceptions, of course. Eleanor O’Connor, wife of the famous hunter and outdoor writer, Jack, traveled with him and hunted in many parts of the world, taking her share of game, including some exceptional trophies. Not as well-known to hunters today were Martin and Osa Johnson of the early to mid-1900’s. Together they traveled to many places that seemed extremely exotic and...